Monday Morning Check-In: I hereby declare my FREEDOM!!!

Good Monday morning everyone in internet land. I would like to take this moment to declare my freedom from the Goodreads challenge. I am not going to participate anymore. When I logged on this morning and saw that I was already behind, due to the brick I am currently on page 600 of. I had had enough. I’m not playing anymore. All it does is make me feel bad about myself, and my scale already has that job covered…. I’m withdrawing from the challenge and will just read however many books I bloody well read. Dammit. After all it isn’t like they won’t tell me how many books I’ve read, pages and rating in a lovely little “Your Year in Books” next December, do I really need that little shiny badge for my profile… My inner school girl is screaming YES! I want the bragging rights, my little gold star if you will. My inner challenger of authority is saying fuck’em while leaning against a wall picker her teeth with a toothpick. Well this time the dark side wins.

I would love to tell you how freeing this all is, but it isn’t. No I’m still conflicted and part of me is crying out it’s not too late. And it’s not. I can change my mind at any time this year and go re-pledge my reading goal and join in with all the other good little pupils. But what if we don’t, lets explore this not participating a little longer and see how it feels after a month. We ALL need to free ourselves from things that make us feel bad about ourselves, and this is pressure I don’t want anymore. Today I declare I am a reader and I am challenge free.

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I JUST signed up for Goodreads last week. Mostly because I was curious how many books I read in a year and figured it might be an easier way to keep my list organized since the good old pen and paper lists never work for me. I gave myself a goal of 10 books. Mostly because I’m not 100% sure how it all works lol

Congrats on signing up! The site is wonderful and I still find it a valuable tool for managing what I read, and if you have a smart phone or tablet it is supper handy for when you go book shopping! I just don’t want the pressure of reading x# of books anymore, even if I am the only one holding myself accountable. It is a fun challenge if you can not become obsessive about it. I apparently can not.

You’re a stronger soul then I, because it does me, little nagging widget… I’ve seen some other bloggers refusing to participate as well and though why am I doing this to my self each year. It also starts dictating what length of books I pick up, and when I noticed that happening I knew it was time to walk away.